September 6
DEATH TO
TO SIN (1 Peter 4:1).
For whom did Christ suffer in the flesh? 1 Peter 4:1.
inis statement is a continuation
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in 3:18. In that verse he speaks of Jesus' suffering and death. There-
fore, when Peter speaks of Jesus' suffering in 4:1, he is directing
our attention to Jesus' death. In view of His death for sinners, His
followers are to arm themselves with a similar frame of mind—a
willingness to die. As Jesus "suffered in the flesh" (died), so we
must be willing to suffer in the flesh (die).
Two kinds of death.
Obviously the person who has died physi-
cally has "ceased from sin" (1 Peter 4:1). But the next verse (1 Peter
4:2) indicates that Peter is speaking of a person who goes on living
as having died to sin. He lives "for the rest of the time in the flesh
no longer by human passions but by the will of God" (1 Peter 4:2,
RSV). Jesus died for sin; the believer dies
to
sin.
What type of death on the part of the sinner will place him in
a position where he will not continue to live a sinful life? Rom.
6:1-7.
Paul and Peter are of one mind.
When Peter says, "For he that
hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin," he is conveying the
same truth that Paul teaches when he says, "Or don't you know that
all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his
death?
For we know that our old self was crucified with him so
that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, that we should no
longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been freed
from sin" (Rom. 6:3-7, NIV). "For you died, and your life is now hid-
den with Christ in God" (Col. 3:3, NW).
"The old sinful life is dead;
the new life entered into with Christ
by the pledge of baptism. Practice the virtues of the Saviour's charac-
ter. . . . The sins that were practiced before conversion, are to be put
off, with the old man. With the new man, Christ Jesus, are to be put
on 'kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering.'
"—
Sons and Daughters of God,
p. 300. The fallen nature still remains after
the death of the "old man," which is the life we used to live before we
found Christ. (See Eph. 4:22-24, 1 Cor. 9:27.)
Can you honestly say that the "old man," your old life of ha-
bitual sinning, is dead? How do you know?
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